As you may know my life has been a pretty rocky road for the past couple of years and especially bad since the first of this year. Since I lost my job and haven't been able to find a comparable corporate gig in 4 months, and my wife of less than 3 years is filing for divorce because she "made a mistake", I find myself with no responsibilities and no ties other than my extended family and my friends. I get a "Do Over". My brothers pitched an idea to me that seemed a little far fetched at first but the more I thought about it the better it sounded and the last few weeks I am very excited about it. My youngest brother owns a very successful 4 wheel drive and sand car fabrication shop (www.3dsandcars.com) in Visalia, California. The shop next door to his is coming up for lease and they suggested that I lease it and open a hot rod shop there. I would have free reign of his shop to use his equipment and could even "borrow" guys on his crew when needed. I plan to have "Highway 99 Hot Rods" open for business in July. I will start out by building a few spec cars. I've already got 80% of the stuff I need to build a 32 highboy including a new chassis and Brookville body. I also have ideas for several products that I want to develop, produce, and market. Third, as word gets out locally, I'll do hot rod repairs and upgrades for the local market. And finally, I'll do complete ground up builds for customers, these may be local or not. I've got a lot of ideas for promoting the business. I'll leverage the traffic that I get from my existing web site. I plan to keep the photo coverage of events going which will mean trips to SoCal and NorCal a couple of times a month. I'm sure that's the main reason my current web site gets an average of over 750 unique visits per day. As soon as I get set up in the shop I plan to transition most of the existing web site's content to www.highway99hotrods.com . Finally, things are moving in a positive direction for me. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
As the old song says "the darkest hour is just before dawn". Glad you've kept your head up. Best of luck.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. If she can't stick with you through thick and thin, then good riddance. Sounds like an awesome opportunity you have now.
Here I was thinking this was going to be another thread that had no relation to trad hot rods then.... Have sort of done something similar - if nothing else you get to hang in your shop and have fun. Good luck with it all.
Go for it. I'm up in Fresno and almost have my 55 Gasser completed. Maybe I can bring some business your way. Rad
i'll stop by when i drive the 99. i havent been down that road for quite awhile. its great you have family to inspire you. go for it!
Good luck. Hopefully she filed for divorce PRIOR to your getting the business together, in any way. So you don't have to give her a part of your hard work.
"Sorry to hear of your troubles. If she can't stick with you through thick and thin, then good riddance. " Yeah...wife failed her road test, good to find that out early on! And I would think that being down and out is a GOOD position to be in during divorce. 50% of nothing is easy to pay off! Don't get new business too far along without counsel...you need to be sure she isn't entitled to new developments.
fuckin right! i was just about to post that. man's a genious, as is that album. Paint that shit Gold!
Good luck Don. You've got a good eye for what makes a good looking hot rod, so I think you'll do well.
You will make it Don, you are very talented and easy to get along with. Good luck! If you need anything from me let me know, Jim
Best of luck Don. You're a good guy so I know you'll have no trouble! Don't get too busy to hang out at shows with Denise and I though!
stand on it and never look back!..good luck and ..your going to definetly be better off with out her. If she cant hang in the tuff times, than you will not need her when your "painting it gold"!
Don, Good for you. You will be very successful, most folks just seem to "cave in" when shit like this is happening. Get good legal counciling.
Don't know you personally but I gotta root for the guy with this story. It'd be a "mistake" not to do this. Good luck to you.
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